Fool's Errand
by mbueno
Summary: P4 Sometimes just killing people or making other people kill people isn't enough fun. It was really the boy's fault for catching his attention in the first place. Vague Adachi/Souji tho mostly just disturbing.


A/N: Er… This is weird, I know. For some reason (coughdoujinshicough) I adore Adachi/MC pairing but know that it would be hella dysfunctional (also sorta kinda non-con in this one). It's been a long time since I played the game so my timeline is a bit skeevy. And stuff… Definitely not everyone's cup 'o tea.

Pairings: bad spelling/grammar, slight AU, OOC, implied rape

Pairing: uh… vague Adachi/MC

Disclaimer: don't own persona 4 and not making any money from this.

-- Fool's Errand --

A world beyond the TV screen… It sounded stupid and something only a child would believe. Shadow monsters that prowled inside those worlds and other monsters that people could call to battle against them. It sounded like something straight out of a manga and it was hard to believe that it was real. Fortunately, it was real and he was aware of it. When he'd thrown the first person inside it'd been an accident but when he'd seen what'd happen to people inside the TV he got curious. Confronted by their own 'shadow' and then devoured by them unless they were able to accept all the ugliness inside them. It was amusing. It was perfect. No one sensible would think that anyone would be able to murder people via TV of all things. Being in the police made it just that much funnier since he'd see them scramble for clues that wouldn't be there. All he had to do was give someone a little push and then watch the show, so to speak. When that got boring he manipulated that poor fool into doing his work for him and oh it was fun!

And then the new kid came to Inaba. At first, he was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a normal kid who'd had to move around a lot because of his parents and had finally ended up here with his uncle who just happened to be his superior in the force. He had little interest in the boy at first since he didn't seem like the type that would provide any fun for him. Quiet and reserved and just a tad disturbing in some way that he couldn't quite pinpoint.

Then he'd heard that the kid and his friend had, for some reason, been waving around weapons at the Junes food court. That puzzled him for a while but then he'd seen the kid and his two friends inside the Amagi girl's world and something had clicked. The kid had nearly the same persona as he did. He was clearly the leader even if the other kids didn't exactly listen to him that attentively. He didn't bumble around and cut down the shadows with grim determination and exploited their weaknesses like he knew them beforehand. He was dangerous but that didn't worry him too much. He, himself, was dangerous too and he doubted the boy knew anything more than that someone was pushing people into the TV.

He'd run into the boy when he escorted his superior back to his home. Though, if he had to be honest 'run into' weren't exactly the right words to use since it was deliberate on his part. He was curious about the kid. He was polite enough in a quiet way but for some reason he got the feeling that he didn't quite buy into the whole 'bumbling rookie detective' image he was projecting. It was both intriguing and frustrating at the same time.

From that point on he made it a point to accidentally run into the kid whenever possible. Shopping in Junes and engaging him in small talk, dropping hints about how the police investigation was going and even accidentally meeting the boy while he was walking near the river. The first time he'd seen the boy there had actually been an accident but he'd recognized that distinctive gray hair immediately and wandered over to the crouching boy to ask what he was doing. The boy had looked at him briefly with his gray eyes and then looked at the cat he'd been feeding. It was an appropriate enough answer. He'd crouched down next to the boy and reached out to pet the cat but it had backed away and hissed and swiped at him before running off. It was difficult to keep his temper in check and not do something like go after the cat and strangle it but it was almost worth it when the boy sighed and took out a handkerchief and tied it around his hand to cover up the scratches. With a murmured 'you should take care of that' the boy had bowed to him and left for home.

After the boy's group of heroes had grown by one with the addition of Kanji Tatsumi he'd taken a different approach. He'd noticed that despite having a rather large group of friends the boy spent a lot of time alone and despite some of the girls obvious crushes on him he was insistent on staying as 'just friends' with them. It was annoying. But then Kanji's '_show'_ had made him think that maybe there really was something wrong with the boy and the way he never gave the girl's a second glance. Granted, he didn't exactly look at boys either but it was still worth investigating. He was a policeman after all…

So after that he'd started to casually touch the boy just to see what kind of reaction he'd get. A casual pat on the back made him tense up and ruffling his hair almost got him punched. Touching any bare skin meant the boy would flinch away instinctively and brushing his fingers against his face made the gray eyes widen in shock. It was increasingly fascinating to see what kind of reactions he could draw out. Whenever he'd touch the boy he'd get a puzzled and confused look as if the boy was trying to understand why he was doing this. It didn't stop the boy from being cautious around him but it didn't look like the boy actually knew he was the mastermind behind the murders. After a while the boy seemed to become somewhat used to the casual touching and because it was boring if he didn't get a reaction he upped the level a bit.

The touches were now inappropriately long and even more frequent. The pat on the back had transformed into a hand at the small of the boy's back and the hair ruffling included him sliding his hand down to cup the boy's cheek just briefly. The first time he'd done that he'd gotten a honest-to-god blush from the boy though he didn't know if it was from embarrassment or because his suspicions were correct. It was a delightful reaction nonetheless even if it earned him an elbow in the gut. When Risette joined the group he was almost certain his suspicions were right, however. What normal teenage boy wouldn't be all over the girl idol who clearly adored them? No matter how gentlemanly the boy was it just wasn't natural for him to brush the girl off like that. And she wasn't the only one, from what he'd heard. Even if Risette (or Rise or whatever she wished to be called…) wasn't his type one of the girls had to be. If he was feeling resentful towards the boy for being so popular it was only natural.

Sometime after that the touches turned into outright molesting. It was the most fun he'd had in a while. The kid would go completely red and sputter and try to push him away. It was most fun when he'd be invited into the Doujima house by his superior and the boy would have to pretend nothing was happening while he could do anything he wanted as long as he made sure the older man didn't see it. It was a dangerous game since he knew Doujima wouldn't hesitate to at least incapacitate him if he caught him molesting his nephew. Nanako-chan might've noticed something was wrong but she was still so young and innocent she wouldn't know what it was even if she did.

The boy kept asking him 'why' and he'd just smile his 'bumbling fool' smile and say that he liked the boy. It was a lie, of course, and he knew that the boy knew it was a lie. The truth was; he _hated_ the boy. Life seemed so _easy_ for him. He had friends and all the girls he could want and he was strong and _special_ in a way that even he wasn't. Even fighting the shadows seemed so easy for him. The boy was the only one who looked at him and saw something else than the front he was projecting and it made him angry.

He'd never been interested in men and all the touching was just to get under the boy's skin. It was working, too, if one looked at the dark circles under the boy's eyes and his wary reaction to seeing him. It was yet another night that he'd walked detective Doujima back to his house and watched the boy make sure that the man got to his bed and that Nanako-chan was sleeping as well. It was clear the boy was uncomfortable around him and was trying to politely indicate that he should leave as it was late already and the boy had school early tomorrow. He ignored the hinting gleefully. Because of the boy and his ragtag group of 'heroes' the midnight channel hadn't been nearly as amusing lately and things at work had been pretty stressful. His certainly wasn't just going to leave his main source of amusement without tormenting him at least a little.

He'd never had interest in men but the boy was pretty enough and it was about power and control and stress-release more than anything else. He struggled of course and he'd have some pretty painful bruises the next day but he was easily silenced by reminding him that if he made too much noise he'd wake up his uncle and cousin. It was a gamble that might've backfired on him but he bet on the boy being an intensely private person and the fact that he wouldn't want to _worry_ his relatives. It wasn't difficult to see that the boy already felt like he was intruding on their lives just by living with them. He covered it well but not well enough and he wasn't afraid to use any leverage he had.

It was clearly painful for the boy and it just made it all the better for him to watch him muffle his own cries and bite his hand until it bled. It wasn't the only place bleeding after he was done but he didn't feel guilty at all. It was the boy's fault really, for being so _different_ and catching his interest. He left afterwards while the boy was desperately trying to clean every sign of what had happened feeling much happier and relaxed.

The boy didn't tell his friends what had happened and if the others wondered why he flinched whenever someone touched him they didn't pressure him. The bear thing seemed to know something was wrong and when he'd seen it in Junes it'd looked at him with a frown on its childish face. It was a bit annoying that the boy avoided him even more than usual after that but he couldn't be with other people all the time. When he did it the second time the boy made no sound at all apart from the harsh breathing and occasional harsh gasp when he was especially rough. The boy looked beautiful after the act was over. Broken and dirty and utterly betrayed.

They almost missed rescuing the girl detective because their fearless leader had a fever and the others couldn't survive inside the TV world without him. It was amusing and highly satisfying that he'd almost made them fail. It would've been better if they _had_ failed to save the brat detective but he knew the boy would've dragged himself to save her even if he were dying.

By the third time the boy seemed resigned and let him pull his legs apart with only minimal protesting. He kept his head turned away and looked at nothing in particular with empty eyes. It wasn't any fun that way so he slowed down and began to touch the boy. Those pretty gray eyes widened and his head snapped around to look at him with growing horror. He's started to struggle again doing his best to get away and muttering 'nononono' desperately. It was much more fun that way and nothing was better than the look on the boy's face messy with tears when he came against his will. The look of utter humiliation and shame was better than anything. He almost cackled with glee as he thought that even if the brats managed to discover who was truly behind everything their leader would be so broken by him the fight would be over before it even began.

And anyway there was Namatame to take the fall for him before that. It was highly unlikely the kids would make it all the way to him.

As he'd predicted Namatame was stupid and exposed himself and managed to push Nanako-chan into the TV and get Doujima-san hospitalized. He felt slightly guilty about that since she was a rather sweet little girl. The brats, of course, ran in to rescue her and the look of panic on the boy's face was delightful. When they did beat Namatame and dragged him to the hospital there was something hard in the boy's eyes. It was puzzling since he'd thought everything had already been broken. It was the first time he thought that maybe there was something he'd miscalculated.

When the brats were in _his_ world he taunted them mercilessly even while fear was gnawing at his mind. It wasn't as if he thought these _children_ would succeed in beating him in his own world but… There was that look on the boy's face. Cold and determined and not the least bit frightened. No matter. He knew what buttons to push with the boy and the rest were relatively harmless without their leader.

Then he was staring straight into those gray eyes. There was nothing broken about the boy that stood in front of him katana in hand and flanked by his friends.

Then he laid on the ground defeated by a bunch of _kids_ and the boy just stood there even though he should be gloating or at least look _satisfied_ that he'd finally managed to find and stop the man behind the murders. Hell, after everything he'd done to torment the boy he was surprised he was even alive and it was _frustrating_. Why wouldn't this one kid act like he was supposed to? Why was he just standing there bruised and battered and victorious and look like he was happy or angry or righteous or _something_?

Then the boy finally speaks. The others are quiet and look to their leader. The bear thing is looking silly as usual in its 'costume' but he knows it knows something more is going on than what should be.

'Why?'

Of course the boy would ask that. It was the only thing he'd asked before as well. He briefly wondered if he should lie again but at this point it would be rather useless really.

'Because it was fun.'

The boy's knuckles go white around the hilt of his weapon and the boy with the headphones has to be restrained by the thug. Wasn't he crushing on that girl from the liquor store? What was her name again?

'Because they deserved it.'

His eyes flickered towards the gun that had been flung from his hand earlier. There was no way he could reach it now, however and he didn't have the strength to call his persona anymore. He had lost completely. The thought didn't make him nearly as angry as he'd thought it would. In fact, he was feeling rather giddy if anything. It was all so funny.

'Because I like you.'

He laughed out loud when the boy flinched and took a half step back. So the damage was still there after all. He heard growling and this time it was the bear thing that had to be held back. So it knew or at least strongly suspected something. From the puzzled looks on the other brats' faces he knew they didn't know. This was pure comedy gold, really.

'Liar.'

The words come out in a low whisper that was full of fury and… something else. Fear, maybe? It was a lie before, he thinks, but how can he not like the boy since now he's practically his creation. This was so much better than just killing someone by throwing them into the television. Even if he died here the boy would always remember him. He would always remain just a bit isolated from other people. If he ever got around to returning someone's affections he would always remember who'd had him first. He would be remembered.

The brats were ready to leave now, obviously disgusted with him. Ever the brave, the boy said he'd carry him since they weren't going to just leave him inside. He was going to have to face justice in the outside world. How wonderfully _nice_ of them, he thought dryly. His hands were tied and the gun was kicked far away, no one willing to touch it. He could feel the reluctance and fear as the boy helped him up. He was still holding the katana and he hadn't sheathed the blade. A not-so-subtle warning.

'You know what.'

The boy didn't look at him but he knew he was listening from the way he went all tense again. What a wonderful victim the boy was. So valiant and noble and so _so_ self-sacrificing. He would've liked to see what the boy's shadow would've been like. It was a shame he hadn't had to face it, really. The other brats had been so boring.

'You're _mine_.'

If his laughter was a bit manic he didn't care. It was all worth the absolutely horrified look on the boy's face. The game wasn't over yet.

--End--

End A/N: Meh… I wonder why recently I keep writing weird stuff…


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